


star-crossed

by vxntascore



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Domestic Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Fluff, M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27649637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vxntascore/pseuds/vxntascore
Summary: star-crossed; definition:"not favored by the stars; ill-fated"a world where you are born without one of the five senses, and as you meet and get to know your soulmate, you gradually get it back.a deaf mickey milkovich is kicked out, and happens to be found under the el by a blind ian gallagher who never stops smiling.
Relationships: Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	star-crossed

Meeting the Gallaghers is a breath of fresh air. They all wear their hearts on their sleeves, and when they feel something, you’re bound to know about it. They’re moving all the time, and they’re spunky, and over all else, they’re a family. These are some of the things that Mickey notes within the first ten minutes of sitting on their kitchen counter like a lost puppy. It’s nothing like his own home, or well, his old home. Affection at the Milkovich residence was practically unheard of, but when it was heard, it was barely anything. A pat on the shoulder when he brought home a grade above a D, a light kick to the side when he would finish kicking his brother’s ass at a video game, a swift side hug from Mandy if he got really lucky. The Gallaghers are nothing like that though, they are all over each other at all times as if their lives are depending on it. He’s not sure if this is what real familial love looks like, but he can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy when he sees them living like normal people.  
There are six of them, he comes to find, all varying in age and appearance. He wonders if they all have the same father, but that’s the worst kind of question to ask, so he brushes it aside and tries to pick them apart one by one. There’s a baby. He can’t be older than three, but is probably younger. He cries a lot, not that Mickey can even hear it, but also looks content most of the time. He hates children, he has to remind himself, whenever he starts to stare for too long. This kid can’t have any major worries. He’s a toddler. It almost sounds nice.  
Next is some probably nine year old boy. He’s got a short head of hair, and he seems fairly violent, but can’t be too bad considering the rest of them are all over him all the damn time. He runs around, he throws things, and he reminds the teenager of himself in a lot of ways. This kid probably has less trauma though. Or maybe more. They seem like they have a good life, but this is the South Side, and nobody really has it good. At least nobody that he’s ever met. The boy runs around seemingly without a care in the world. It’s admirable.  
Next is a girl. She looks to be a little older than the violent kid from before, and is the most energy filled out of all of them. She’s running around the house doing this and that, her long ponytail swinging behind her as she does so. She seems stressed, but also off in her own world at the same exact time. She can’t seem to care about anything else going on that she doesn’t want to care about, and in all honesty, that sounded nice, not having to deal with the rest of the world’s problems.  
Another boy is next, one he knows from around town. His name is Lip, he’s smart, and he sells weed during the summer. He seems like he knows what he’s doing with this big family, being able to guide some of them. The parents aren’t here, he eventually realises, and he doesn’t see them coming back any time soon. After a moment he realizes that these are Frank’s kids. Hell no, he’s not coming home any time soon. At least not tonight. Lip is a normal teenager. He drinks, he smokes, he goes to parties like all normal teenagers do. That’s respectable.  
The oldest one is a girl, at least five years older than him. She’s pretty but she looks tired, almost as if she’s been doing too much for too long. From what Mickey can see, she’s yelling orders around the house. It’s not angry yelling though, and he knows that. He knows what angry yelling is and this isn’t that. This is raising a family, this is caring about five younger siblings who needed some form of guidance. She looks in need of a break, and although he’d never tell anyone, he feels bad.  
But there’s one more, one that’s truly enticing to the man. He’s a ginger, and he never stops smiling. Mickey’s seen him around school, and down at the Kash’N’Grab from time to time. They’re around the same age, and he’s definitely seen Ian, he remembers his name to be, the most out of anyone else in this house. Once again, he never stops smiling, and he’s committed to making sure that everyone else in the house is aware of everything that’s going on. He never stops talking, and although Mickey can’t hear him, he can read his lips decently. ROTC, school, work, laundry, extra money, every subject you can think of for a poor family of six to broach. Ian’s smile is addicting, and he can’t help but keep watching as the ginger moves around the house.  
The aforementioned Gallagher also happens to be the one that found him under the El, bleeding and shaking, and punching the nearby brick wall. It was almost midnight, and he was shocked anyone had found him in the first place, but upon forcing a story out of him, Ian insists on taking him home and letting him stay until he gets back on his feet, and finds a place to stay permanently. So that’s how Mickey ended up on the Gallagher kitchen counter, still bleeding slightly as he inspected each and every person in his line of sight.  
That was when Ian came up to him holding a rag in one hand and some alcohol shit that was supposed to stop the pain in the other. Fiona, the oldest, was getting the younger kids to bed, so it was just them downstairs now. Ian still hadn’t stopped smiling, and god damn, was it going to take a toll on him eventually. He liked this boy’s smile too much for his own good, but he would rather die than outwardly admit that fact.  
“Fiona got me some stuff to clean up your face with...I’m sorry it took so long, Debbie and Carl have school in the morning, and she has work and-”  
“It’s fine. I don’t care.”  
The fact that even when he was so swiftly cut off, Ian never stopped smiling, was maddening. He had to read this kid’s lips to understand him, too, so it wasn’t like he could just look away. He hated being deaf, and even more than that, he hated being fully deaf. Most people could hear slightly. He couldn’t, and was sure he would never be able to. Mickey would probably be killed if he found his soulmate. He knew his dad would know, and sneaking around wasn’t easy. It was a screaming match about exactly that that led to him getting kicked out and thrown under the El. If he met his person, he would most likely just run away for forever to avoid the confrontation aspect.  
“I set up a spot for you on the couch. There’s water and tylenol too, I would suggest taking it. Stay for as long as you need to, I really don’t mind and as long as you help out every once and awhile, I’m sure Fiona won’t either.”  
Okay, so he never stopped talking, good to know.  
“Okay, you can stop now-fuck!”  
Mickey hissed in pain from the rag on his forehead, then took a shaky breath. Ian was blind, he had to remind himself. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt though. So yeah. Now he was getting his wounds cleaned by a pretty boy that never shut up, and didn’t even know what he looked like. Wow, that kind of sucked. But he had a place to stay. That was the only thing that really mattered. It wasn’t getting gang raped in the middle of the night in the cold. It was a broken family approaching him with open arms when they didn’t need to by any means.

It wasn’t until the second night that something actually happened. The past day hadn’t been so bad. Just hours worth of the Gallagher family talking his ear off just to find out that he’s deaf. He felt bad, but it wasn’t like he could magically start hearing again for their convenience. Ian sat down and talked to him a lot though, just about random things to pass the time. He made his words enunciable so that Mickey could hear him, which was greatly appreciated. It made him feel less stupid than when people would just stare at him as if he couldn’t comprehend anything. He could, he just couldn’t actually hear them.  
He had learned some things about the family over the past forty eight-hours that he hadn’t realized prior. Just things about their lost senses. Liam couldn’t smell, which was fine considering he was a baby. Carl couldn’t feel anything, and that just meant he got into more trouble than he needed to. Debbie couldn’t taste, that kind of sucked. Lip had already met some girl, and could hear once again. Fiona couldn’t see that well, normal stuff.  
But Ian was different. Ian was fully blind. Mickey found out through the way he stumbled, the way his hands would search for things, the confused look on his face whenever his hands went on those searches. It made him realize how much he liked Ian’s hands, to be fair. This also meant that the younger man knew what it was like, the absolute hell of being quite literally completely in the dark. With such a major sense, it was most common to only have a partial loss. Neither of them had any lead, ending up getting the short end of the stick.  
It was late now, and Mickey was sitting awake on the couch. The rain was pattering outside, and the house was dead silent until he heard a shuffling coming down the stairs. Considering his eyes had adjusted to the dark by now, it was easy to tell that this was the blind Gallagher himself, sitting down to presumably talk. They didn’t talk automatically, though. There was a silence that went on only until Ian cleared his throat and started up. It was a blessing that the street lights lit up Ian’s face enough to where the other could hear him.  
“I couldn’t sleep, so I was going to just come down here and get some water but I noticed that you’re awake and-”  
Mickey decides to let him finish.  
“I thought you might need somebody to talk to, so here I am, talking to you.”  
His words are fast, and hard to comprehend, but the raven haired teen picked up on the gist after a second or two of going back over things.  
“I’m fine, It’s just different, and I’m used to things being crazy at my place.”  
He swallows his pride for long enough to apologize, even without a reason to do so.  
“I’m sorry. My intention wasn’t to bother you.”  
“Oh no, no no, you weren’t bothering me. If anything I should be letting you sleep. Also. feel free to turn the TV on as long as it’s not super loud. If Fi doesn’t know, then she won’t have your head, but she’s nice, I promise. Just stressed, she has a lot on her plate.”  
As Ian rambled on about this and that in regards to their family dynamic, Mickey was almost sure he could hear a low buzzing whenever the boy sitting next to him opened his mouth, and the barely audible ruffling of the blanket as he shifted around. He couldn’t exactly mistake it for anything else, but it also doesn’t make sense. Why would this be happening now of all times? The answer was obvious, in retrospect, but Milkovich was tired, and in denial, and the two things mixed were keeping him from jumping to any conclusion. He’s staring at Ian, and trying to fathom what all was happening. He doesn’t respond, just hums and nods to prove that he had been even halfway paying attention.  
That’s when Ian is starting to look around, not that he would have anything to look at as far as he knew. The realization of what was happening didn’t set in until a few seconds later, and Mickey could have sworn he felt his heart drop out of his chest right then and there. This wasn’t right, or at least it didn’t feel like it was. Not for any crazy moral reason either, but for the reason that this was Ian fucking Gallagher, a guy he had seen around school a number of times over the past ten or so years of his life. To be fair, they had never spoken until two days ago and didn’t know anything about each other until now, but it still just wasn’t clicking.  
Mickey had to remind himself that in a sense, he was free now. Sure, if his father were to see the wrong thing out in public, he could die, but behind closed doors? He would never know a thing. Nobody would. He didn’t have to go home with any evidence of anything anymore. There was risk, but there was no longer the guarantee of dying if he went home with the wrong thing on his neck, or the wrong texts in his phone. There was fear, but the concept was still exhilarating in nature and made him think. That being said, he was snapped out of thought by the low buzzing making a return, causing him to whip his head around to watch Ian again.  
“I just saw something-”  
Fuck. he knew it was coming but by no means was Mickey ready for this conversation. He was tired, and shaken, and coming to terms with his own side of things.  
“The fuck you did.”  
He mused with a half assed snicker, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back.  
“No, I swear I did. I can even tell you what I’m seeing for proof but you have to hear me out. I know this. I promise I do.”  
Ian was excited. Anybody would be but dear god, this was terrifying.  
“Can we at least talk about this when it’s not two in the morning? Please?”  
Mickey offered with an almost pleading tone. There was a long pause before Ian nodded, shifting around for a moment before standing up.  
“Deal, but when we do, I want to take you on a date. Clear your schedule on Friday, I’ll give you more details the day of.”  
This could not possibly get more scary.  
“Fine, but don’t think that I’m gonna be kissing you and being all lovey and shit by Friday, okay?”  
And with a thumbs up and one of those short, sweet smiles, Ian was back up the stairs and heading back to his room. Mickey fell asleep with the TV on.

When Friday rolls around, it’s raining. Of course it is, because Mickey continuously gets the short end of the stick. But naturally, when he expresses this fact, Ian insists that they can do something anyways, and the park wasn’t their only option. But then they couldn’t find anything to do. Neither of them could drive, and Fiona was working, so they were left to either go and fuck around at The Alibi Room, or stay home. One of these options most likely included speaking to Frank, so yeah, they were staying in.  
They had been speaking quite a bit more across the week, finding it easier to have random conversations about things. The longer he stayed, the easier Mickey found it to talk to Ian. He was so unbelievably domestic around the rest of his siblings, and it made it easier to feel like he could relax, and be himself. With that, and with talking to Ian more came being able to hear better. At this point he could generally understand what people were saying if they spoke loud enough. And he liked it. He liked it a lot, because he liked being able to hear Ian’s voice.  
That was exactly what he was doing now. The sun was going down, and it was still drizzling outside, but the pair was now sitting on the porch, both of the smoking in a blissful silence. They had ordered pizza and watched a movie in place of going out, and it hadn’t been bad at all. It had actually been shockingly nice. Maybe Mickey was lying when he had told Ian that they would be “kissing and being all lovey and shit by Friday” because they had totally cuddled through the entire movie, and the entire Gallagher family had definitely seen it the entire time. Milkovich had almost been apprehensive, because he wasn’t used to being able to live a normal life, but Ian was his soulmate, and he was okay, or at least he was going to be.  
It was still setting in that Ian was his soulmate. He never thought he would get this kind of love, but even when they weren’t being as affectionate as they had been earlier, they talked a lot. Like, a lot a lot. The conversations were pointless too. Hell, one day the subject was their favorite breeds of dogs because they didn’t have anything better to do. They rated trashy movies, and they acted like everything was okay. And honestly? By now, almost everything was okay.  
“Were you ever shocked by the things you could see? Or has it always been normal?”  
The silence is broken by Ian’s question, and it’s just another breath of fresh air because now that Mickey can hear him, it’s exhilarating whenever the boy opens his mouth. He has to think for a moment, considering it hadn’t ever crossed his mind that this was normal for him, but not for Ian.  
“I’m not really surprised anymore. When I was younger, maybe, but it gets boring after a while. What about you? With hearing, that is.”  
His voice is quiet, but he can hear himself, which is odd, but nice. He hadn’t known until just now what his voice sounded like. It wasn’t horrible.  
“Weird. Every time I see something I haven’t seen before it’s just...it’s weird, but I like it. As for hearing, I like knowing what new people’s voices sound like. Like yours. Sometimes stuff weirds me out, but it’s nothing too crazy.”  
He says, and then starts looking around as if something is wrong. Mickey subconsciously takes Ian’s hands as a silent reassurance. He didn’t know what was going on, but he could try and help. The taller man put out his cigarette, patiently awaiting a response.  
“Shit, it’s definitely been different. There are some things I didn’t even know made noises. Like doors? Who was gonna tell me that they slammed so loudly? I’ve been liking music too. It’s different, but nice. And I like your voice.”  
He was laughing lightly, and the last part of his statement had come out a little bit quieter. He looked genuinely happy, and he was. The past week had been insane, but Mickey had learned to lighten up a bit. He wasn’t all the way there of course, and this was definitely going to be a rare occurrence for a little while, but when he had initially stepped into the Gallagher household, he had been terrified to show any positive emotions. That wasn’t taking up all his time anymore.  
It took longer than he wanted to admit to realize that Ian was staring at him now, as he had been just laughing and smiling for the past minute or so. That was when he stopped, clearing his throat and putting out his own cigarette out awkwardly. They were now just staring, the tension becoming unbelievable in terms of how they weren’t doing anything, just watching each other in that same peaceful silence as before. Ian was the one to speak, finally, and his words caught Mickey off guard by a lot.  
“You’re really pretty, now that I can actually see you.”  
He has to pause, because he can’t see anybody describing him as pretty. Girls were pretty, overly feminine men in magazines were pretty, but he was just a fucked up teen from the South Side of Chicago. He couldn’t imagine how he could ever be seen as pretty. He didn’t have much time to think about it though, because before he knew it, his face was lightly being grabbed, and he was being kissed. Kissed by a boy. Kissed by his soulmate. Kissed by Ian Gallagher.  
The emotion of the moment didn’t last for long, because their noses were bumping, and they were both bursting into fits of laughter like they were completely untouchable. And in that moment they were, because when Mickey made the move to pull away, he couldn’t help but note how stunning Ian looked, the street lights shining on his face as he grinned. This wasn’t the smile that never went away. This was something completely different, and completely lovable.  
Neither of them could say anything. There were no words for this moment, because being around a certain Ian Gallagher was a breath of fresh air. He was spunky, and loud, and he never stopped smiling, and over all else, he was so incredibly loved.

**Author's Note:**

> lol this took forever and i did not proofread it.


End file.
